We had our first campout of the year a week ago. We met up with other Sunline Club friends at Geneva On the Lake SP in northeast Ohio. The campout was great, however the trip there and back was not so good.
I had 2 tire failures. Total tread separation on 2 sides of the camper. And there was body damage to the camper.
This will end up being a growing post as I will keep the blowouts, what failed, the new tires, and the body damage fix in the same post. I will update each area as it happens and I get some time to post it.
The first blow out…
We started out on a 150 mile trip one way on Friday 5/4. I do have a TPM (Tire Pressure Monitor) and all tires were at 80 psi cold before we left. The tires are LT227/75R16 Load range E BFG Commercial TA tires.
At 100 miles into the trip, the right rear tire blew out. I only tow at 60 mph as a norm. May coast up to 65 and back down but that is it. The wind was surging a lot. I could tell the whole rig wiggled from the wind blasts. The tires in the non-sun side of the camper were 3 deg F warmer then the sun side while towing. I thought that was odd but the pressure on all 4 was within 1 or 2 psi. Maybe the wind surges created a little more heat in the one side of the camper with more side flex? Don't know only a guess. I do not think that was a cause, more of an observation. My friend towing to camp also has a TPM and he noticed the same thing.
I heard a loud "bang", looked in right mirror and saw a puff of smoke as the tire tread flew off. Never felt anything in the truck. A few seconds later the TPM went off. After limping about 1,000 feet to get out of the guard railed area, we pulled off the side of the interstate and found this.
The flying tread did some good damage to the camper and it beat up the metal valve stem on the front tire creating a leak. Also broke off the TPM sensor on the front tire. The tread even beat off the grease cap on the rear axle and I lost 2 hub caps. After fiddling with the valve stem on the front tire I could stop the tire leak which was now down to 60psi. I pulled out the generator an mini compressor and pumped it up to 80psi before moving the camper another 1,000 ft to the exit.
A close up on the missing grease cap. Dust in the bearing grease not. Not good.
You can see here, the entire outer tread separated from the tire and blew off. A large sidewall split went from the OD to the bead.
And the tire on the ground after putting the spare on.
Also to note, we stopped for fuel and was lug nut tightening on all wheels 10 minutes before this tire blew out. Never noticed anything wrong and I was right at the tire.
At the exit was a Nissan truck dealer that said “Commercial Vehicles” on the sign. Great! Maybe they have a tire? I went to see the service manager and told him my issues. He checked his inventory but did not have a tire. I asked if I could change my tire and put the spare on in his lot. He said yes and do you need a floor jack to make it easier? I told him I had all the tools, jacks. etc. I just needed a safe flat spot to change this tire rather than out on I-71.
Had to think up what to do with a missing grease cap.
H'mm, well MacGyver would be proud. I made one.
Wiped all the dust/dirt out of the end of the bearing. I had some lithium grease I use on the WD hitch and to ball so I packed the end of the bearing with grease to help keep any more dirt out of the actual bearing.
Then I created a grease cap out of Gorilla tape. It worked and created a protective cavity for the grease inside.
Then I took a hubcap off the left side and put it over the Gorilla taped hub. I moved the TPM sensor to the bent valve wheel.
The service manager was really helpful and found me a tire shop in Medina OH and said these guys will for sure have one. I called and they had 4 brands in my size. I bought one Firestone Transforce HT LT to replace the blown one and took the right front tire off (the bent valve stem tire) and put it in the truck. The shop put the new tire on the front location as this tire took an instant overload and was leaking down before I could pull off and did not want to press my luck. Then we went to camp.
Here is some of the damage on the door side of the camper. Took these when we made it to camp
Blew a hole in the Darco. More Gorilla tape to the rescue.
My poor mud flap took a direct hit
We had a great weekend campout with friends and started heading back home. At approx 100 miles into the trip, the second one blew out on the left front side. This was about 20 minutes after a gas stop. Same pattern, blew the entire tread off and a large rip in the sidewall all the way to the bead.
Sitting on the side of the interstate dealing with it.
Now not having any good spare left, I had to put the bent valve stem tire on and go slow as I can for the next 50 miles to get home. I had to pump up the tire as it was down to 70psi so I had to dig the genny and the compressor out of the truck again. This time on the edge of I 71 with truck whizzing by at 70mph. I was able to pull the 3/4 of entire camper on the grass leaving only the blown wheel on the very edge of the shoulder. This gave me about 10 to 12 feet of room before the right hand white line of the lane. It was about the best tire changing place on the side of a interstate as one could get.
The mud flap on the front left took a beating and it cracked the fender but it did not beat up the gold aluminum thankfully.
We made it home OK. Some one for sure was looking out for us as this could of went a lot worse, but it didn’t and we are very thankful. The Nissan dealer, the tire shop, the MacGyver grease cap, sealing the Darco up with Gorilla tape before the rain came, everything just worked out.
The first blow out I left at the tire dealer. I forgot to grab it as I wanted to talk to my retired tire engineering buddy on this. The second one I still have here in the barn.
Now to sort out what happened, what to get to put back on as this camper is not leaving the barn yard without 5 new tires.
Thanks for looking.
John
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